Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain

A loyalist to the Chechen liberation cause, Mikhas Ivankov had fought to succeed from Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. He witnessed atrocities committed by the Russian armies in his village, and wound up drafted into their ranks. Over time Ivankov became a decorated officer and participated in Soviet battles fought to achieve world Communism.

During an unknown period, Ivankov affiliated with the Organizatsiya Obshina, a Russian Mafia group with ties to foreign criminal enterprises. He also joined the Soviet Politburo, but failed to push for Chechen liberation.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ivankov pressed to release his country, but the Russians did not agree, and forced him to rebel. He established the Chechen Democratic Partizans (CDP) while constructing an army. Russian and Chechen forces battled throughout the middle nineties with the latter losing to a superior opponent. Ivankov and his CDP officers of former KGB, Spetznaz, and Politburo radicals turned their army into a terrorist faction to change their tactics.

Ivankov's mafia connections led to involvement with members of the Syphon Filter operation. He was familiar with Mara Aramov and shared similarities to fellow Chechen Erich Rhoemer, although the extent of their cooperation is unknown. The CDP used Russian facilities to assist the transport of cattle infected with the Omega Strain.

Motivated to destroy Moscow, Ivankov sent CDP courier Anatoly Yushchenko to sell the virus on the black market. The Chechens succeeded in buying a nuclear warhead from North Korea in exchange for a viral sample. Ivankov attempted to launch it from a Ukrainian base, but Agency forces intervened.

Wounded in the battle with I.P.C.A. personnel, Ivankov fled into the nearby Ukrainian forest. Director Logan managed to track him and personally killed him with his bare hands.

Trivia

He is one of the few antagonists who the player does not confront but is killed off-screen, unlike Erich Rhoemer, Jason Chance, Grant Morrill/ Singularity and Ghassan al-Bitar.